Ain’t Nuthin’ but a G Thang
This episode is stuffed to the brim with content! We review FOUR albums, cover the letter ‘G’ for our ABCs, and have a live review! So, I’ll save you some time by not filling this space with letter-based jokes and let you get right to listening.
Reviews:
Periphery – Periphery IV: Hail Stan (3 Dot)
Allegaeon – Apoptosis (Metal Blade)
Wormwitch – Heaven that Dwells Within (Prosthetic)
Polar – Nova (Nuclear Blast)
Live Review:
Chaos and Carnage Tour 2019 featuring Whitechapel, Dying Fetus, Revocation, Spite, Fallujah, Uncured, and Buried Above Ground at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ on April 18, 2019
G is for
Gomorrah
Periphery – Periphery IV: Hail Stan
Allegaeon – Apoptosis
Wormwitch – Heaven that Dwells Within
Polar – Nova
ABC’s of 2019:
Gomorrah
The Sideshow Podcast 
What a week! Your reviews consist of my favorite tech-death band, my favorite djent band, and my favorite hardcore band. Though is there any doubt where to start?
Apoptosis by Allegaeon. Here’s the thing: I actually can’t disagree with you guys too much about the details of what you said, but I can still strongly disagree with you about the final rating. It’s still a no-doubter 5 of an album. An album with a rating of 5 can still have a few nitpicks associated with it. Are tracks 1-7 a bit too “same-y”? Yes. Did I want more of any one of the death metal adjectives in here? Yes. I would have liked it to be more progressive, more technical, or even more melodic. If someone has never listened to Allegaeon before would I tell them to start with Apoptosis? I would not. But does it tick all my boxes in terms of quality music that I want to listen to right now? It most certainly does. Will it be appearing on a year end list? Most certainly. Will it be ranked higher than the next album I want to talk about? Probably not.
I can’t help but compare Apoptosis to Empath by Devin Townsend, which I had been listening to heavily right before Apoptosis was released. Before Empath, I felt like Heavy Devy had been in a bit of a rut, releasing three albums that all kind of sounded the same (Epicloud, Sky Blue, and Transcendence) and one that was a sequel (Z2). But Empath takes things to another level. It doesn’t do the album justice to say that it is an amalgamation of everything he has done throughout his career. Empath is one of those things that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
I bought the albums from both Periphery and Polar. But I haven’t even listened to those albums yet because all other music ceases to exist when Allegaeon releases new music. Even without listening to Nova by Polar yet, I totally agree with you about the band in general. I can easily say that Polar are my current favorite hardcore band. But the competition consists of Hatebreed and no one else.
I’m still a bit surprised you guys love Wormwitch so much. They’re still essentially black metal. The song you played by Wormwitch sounds so much like Tribulation that if you told me it was a new single from Tribulation that I’d believe you. Metal Archives lists Dissection as the most similar band to Wormwitch.